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Saturday, February 10, 2007

let's talk about Oprah for just a moment...

...I recorded Thursday's Oprah and am watching it this morning. I feel sorry for her. The show is called, "The Secret" and she has invited a panel of 'experts' on the secret of the universe -- the secret to living the greatest life possible for you -- the secret that will allow you to get out of debt, lose weight, make millions, and appearantly have the whitest teeth on the planet.

It seems that Norman Vincent Peale should be calling his lawyers 'cuz these guys have just repackaged "The Power of Positive Thinking".

Really, Jesus must be crying right now.

This panel of experts have just 'shanghaied' the truth of the King of the Universe and are taking all the credit for it ... as well as selling it in their DVD for a small cost.

Now the guest on the show who is in $43,000 in debt because she and her husband spent money to feel more in control of their lives and then the man left her with the daughter and the bills is saying "I am sick and tired of being the victim" and the panel is giving her a list of tips and techniques to visualize her life of freedom ("close your eyes each morning and see yourself being able to do whatever you'd like to do with your daughter") This panel is so full of themselves and Oprah is so busy trying to prove to them that she is just as 'hip' to the secret of the universe that I literally feel sick to my stomach. Oh how I wish Jesus could just walk onto this stage and turn it over in righteous anger.

Now they're telling her that if she will forgive her husband and claim her birthright of feeling her best best about being a woman and a mother, "Claim it now, sweetheart" she will be able to walk in freedom. And Oprah responds, "Hallelujah!". And they are instructing her to be grateful and live in forgiveness and believe that she has the right to love herself. My heart is sobbing. Church where have we been? The truth is being robbed from our lips and repackaged without the true author's name. Our world is starving for Jesus Christ and the freedom he brings.

They are shouting over each other in order to be heard as the smartest, most successful people in the universe. I am thankful for the humility of my Savior. I am repentant for the times when I have ignored and even despised the truth of His upside down rules of freedom. (the greatest is the least, the rich squeeze through the needle's eye, the first shall be last...)

Tamara Hill Murphy

I am Tamara Murphy: born and raised in a cynical, smalltown Northeast still harboring a penchant for hope and big ideas. Now I live in the bright city of Austin, Texas with my audacious and often-homesick family: two daughters, two sons, one husband.

I believe in the power of the written word. I read and write words to make friends with the ancient, present and future. I write to encourage both you and me to see God's presence through daily practices of art, liturgy and relationship.